NXT, Ardor, wallets, asset… let’s clarify

In the last days some new members of the NXT and Ardor community were confused about the Ardor wallet, address, etc. So in this post I would like to clarify, as much as I can, how all this works.

Today, 25 March 2017, there is no Ardor wallet (or client) running in the live network (or Mainnet). According to the developers roadmap it will be launched in Q3 2017, which means some time between July and September 2017.

So the only wallet (or client) around at the moment in the live (or Mainnet) network is NXT.

But how come it is possible to buy and exchange Ardor today?

The Ardor being bought today are an Asset on the NXT Asset Exchange. In fact if you send the Ardor you bought on any exchange to your NXT address, you will find your Ardor in the Asset Exchange section of the client and not in the “Account Balance”. This is one of the greatest features of NXT. Unlike Bitcoin/Litecoin/etc. where you have only the amount of coins you own in your wallet, in NXT you can have Assets, MS currencies, etc. besides the NXT you own.

So what will happen to my Ardor assets when the live (or mainnet) or Ardor will be launched in Q3 2017?

At the launch of the first release of the Ardor client, you will need to download the brand new Ardor client (or wallet) and login with your old NXT address and/or passphrase and you will find the amount of Ardor assets you own as the Ardor “Account Balance”. Also your Ardor address will be exactly the same as the old NXT address.

And what happens to the Ardor assets on the “old” NXT client?

There will be a hard fork of NXT (new client release) in which the Ardor asset will disappear. This is to prevent confusion and scams.

Besides what written above, there will be also the distribution of Ignis tokens based on the amount of NXT you own. You will get 50% of your NXT amount in Ignis at the moment the Ardor genesis block will be created. In the Ardor client you will be able to handle both Ardor and Ignis (first childchain) with the same account. You simply need to select from a drop down window if you want to handle Ardor or Ignis.